Average amount that a New Yorker makes renting their space on AirBnB: $21,000

Amount the average user makes on Rentoid renting out their gaming systems: $200

Average amount made by Relayride’s frequent renters: $8,931

Of course, while infographics like these serve as effective viral marketing, they don’t tell the whole story. Focusing on the profit that users can reap from collaborative consumption makes for a good sales pitch, and these sort of numbers are convincing. But profit should not be the only benefit touted. To create lasting and significant change, the sharing economy must be more than another form of “happy capitalism”.

The sharing economy can make users some needed cash, and in an economy like this, you can’t ignore the potential impact of that. But when collaborative consumption frames relationships as ways to make money, we’re back to square one. Instead of corporations commodifying relationships, we’ll be doing the commodifying—small micro-corporate nodes in a retrofitted yet fundamentally flawed system.

Focusing on the profit motive reduces the scope of the sharing economy, from a transformative cultural movement to an easy way to make a quick buck. Sharing isn’t just a way to make startups profit and build a new economy of micro-entrepreneurs—it’s a cultural movement that has the power to build community, engagement and a new, more sustainable peer-to-peer economy, transforming how we define our interpersonal relationships in the process.